38

ALL RESTS WITH THE JURY

CLOSE OF ARGUMENT IN THE SHEEDY CASE.

Mr. Strode Brings His Brilliant, Earnest Plea for the Life of His Client to a Thrilling Close.

And Mr. Lambertson Reviews the History of the Crime With Telling Eloquence and Vigor-Bracing Up the Jury.

A Passionate Outburst of Counsel.

Never in the history of the city has public interest in any event been so thoroughly demonstrated as was yesterday the interest in the Sheedy case. People began to arrive at the court house before 8 o'clock, hoping thereby to secure desirable seats ere court opened at 9. As the hour of opening approached long lines of people were to be seen pouring from every direction en route to the court house. Every neighboring hitching post was brought into service for the tethering of horses and vehicles. At 9 o'clock it was almost impossible to crowd one's way through the court room. No regard was paid to the railing enclosing the large space usually allotted to the court and the bar. Every foot of standing room even in that large court chamber was filled, and more than filled. The ladies, who largely predominated, had invaded the very steps of the throne of justice, and Judge Field's platform was flanked on either side by banks of feminine faces and gay and fluttering headgear. If there was a single inch of vacant space in all that crowded room outside of the few square feet in front of the jury box, it was impossible to locate it by a view form the judicial dais. Even the defendants were brought into uncomfortable proximity with the eager throngs, whose chairs were crowded directly up against them. No such assemblage of beauty, fashion, walth, intelgence, mixed with their various reverses, has ever been witnessed in a Lincoln court of justice, or anything nearly approaching it, while hundreds were turned away, not because the doors were closed, but because it was utterly impossible to push one's way in. There was a musical but deafening hum of conversation as the jostling, pushing audience pushed into more or less uncomfortable positions, content even with the poorest accommodations, gald even that they were permitted to stand up to see and hear the proceedings. Such an audience was well calculated to bring out every latent power of logic and eloquence from the brains and lips of the gifted counsel, and most truly did it exert its full capabilities in that line. There were old ladies and old gentlemen there, whose wrinkled: visages and white locks had never adorned so impressive a scene. There were young men and youths who were ardent in their views on the case. young and fasionable misses and young girls stood along in rows and viewed with critical eyes the raiment of each other. Hundreds of married ladies were there looking out for the best seats, [fluttering?] their fans and holding themselves in readiness to be touched to tears. Their readiness in that direction was brought to frequent proof.

It was a little remarkable that with such a multitude crowded and pressed into so slight a space the order throughout the day was, with one exception, beyond criticism or reproof. Only once was the court called upon to indulge an admonition. That [?] audience was most thoroughly impressed with the gravity and solemnity of the situation, and the stillness of death reigned through most of the day, broken only by the impassioned pleadings of the counsel to the jury. The crowd in the afternoon to hear the closing argument of Mr. Lambertson was simply beyond description. So dense was it that one middle-aged lady standing up in the aisle fainted late in the afternoon and it was actually impossible to take her out. So intent was the crowd on hearing Judge Field's instructions to the jury, then being delivered, that few noted the incident and those in the immediate vicinity, with the assistance of [Bailiff?] Taylor, applied restoratives and in a few minutes had her so that she could sit up and renew her interest in the proceedings.

When Mrs. Sheedy came into court in the morning her sisters fairly carried her along the narrow passage made for her through the crowd. She was evidently very ill and weak. Her attorneys had consulted as to the advisability of bringing in a couch for her, but the stout-hearted, resolute little woman had insisted that she would be equal to the ordeal. As she came in it looked as if her attendant's support was all that kept her from reeling and falling to the floor. During the pathetic argument of Mr. Strode she alternated between expression of tearful grief and sorrow and those of absolute exhaustion. During the afternoon session while Mr. Lambertson was relentlessly picturing the evidences of her guilt and arraigning her in no tender terms and tones for the crime charged against her, her old calm and determined strength appeared to have returned. She resolutely faced the counsel and jury; but no expression of feeling, of approval or disapproval, was seen to [flit?] across her pallid face through all that terrible impeachment, and when she left the court room she walked erect and firm and a hearing that indicated the dauntless spirit that has marked her demeanor through the twenty-two days of the trial. Mrs. Morgan and Mrs. Dean joined in her tears at the mention of their mother, and were much more easily moved to tears than was she.

Monday McFarland wore the same dazed, stolid expression he has worn since the argument of the case began. He appears to realize that there is absolutely no hope for him. The sympathetic appeals made to the jury have had no reference to him. He has had to gain all the consolation vouchsafed him in the arguments from the effort of his consel to prove him a negro who was much abused in order to get him to confess and a monumental liar when he did so. He has seen his counsel contending that his confession could in no way implicate Mary Sheedy even though it consigned him to the gallows. And he realises the meaning of it all. He has had the finger of denunciation pointed at him time and again as the murderer of John Sheedy, but his sodden eyes evinced no sign of fear or recognition. He sits surrounded by a group of colored women, but he never appears to be aware of their presence.

Mr. Strode's Last Urgent Appeal.

Every breath of sound in that crowded room vanished when Mr. Strode stepped before the jury to resume the argument he had begun the previous evening. He recounted briefly the points he had made on opening ere he branched off into a correction of Mr. Hall's reference to "the murder of King Claudius." In the latter connection he said that as he remembered having read the story, King Claudius was not murdered, but that [?] was his brother, King Hamlet.

Mr. Strode then recounted a well known case in Vermont where two brothers had confessed to having murdered a brother-in-law, were convicted and were about to be executed years after the missing man's disappearance, when by mere chance the latter was discovered living in New Jersey. He also referred to the case of Windnagel, the Randolph street butcher, who at tempted suicide, to prove the unreliability of circumstantial evidence, contending that his room-mate, Kyle, would probably have been convicted of his murder, had he not recovered. He detailed these two cases with all the fervor he could command to impress the jury with a lack of faith in confessions and circumstantial evidence.

Then he took up Monday's confession, reiterating the statement with emphasis that it could not weigh, under the law, against his [client?], Mary Sheedy, and recounted all of the inducements that had been held out to Monday to induce him to confess, contending that neither of the confessions were voluntary and were therefore not admissable in evidence.

In turning his attention to the work of detectives he referred to the alleged fact that Pinkerton man had been brought here from Chicago in order that no stone would be left unturned to hound down Mary Sheedy, in order that her portion of the Sheedy estate might go to the Sheedy heirs. He thought it very appropriate with the line of this prosecution that a [Pinkerton?] man should be brought here for that purpose, Mr. Hall, of counself for the state, was a member of the law firm of Marquett, Deweese & Hall, who were attorneys for the B. & M. railroad in Nebraska. It would probably be remembered that these Pinkerton men had been called upon before to do work in Nebraska, and for that company.

Mr. Hall was promptly upon his feet at this utterance and it was evident that he was indignant;

"Now, your honor, I think there is no such testimony as that in this court, and I think that such a statement ought to be severely condemned by this court. Such a statement concerning the C., B. & Q. railroad is made with the hope of unfairly and unlawfully influencing this jury, some of whom may belong to the farmers' alliance, and I want to brand it as cowardly, unmanly, unwarranted, and unprofessional."

The speaker, for the first time since the opening of the case, evinced anger in his face, and his fervor increased as he proceeded until the court broke in with "That will do Mr. Hall, Mr. Strode there is no such fact as that in evidence."

"Your honor, Johnnie Klausner testified that a Pinkerton detective was employed-"

"Yes, but there was nothing about their employment by the C. B. & Q."

"I will admit, your honor, that that was rather outside of the evidence."

"I had hoped, Mr. Strode, that you would endeavor to be fair in your argument. You have tried the case fairly so far, and I dislike to see you mar it in your argument. Please refrain from any further statements of that character."

Mr. Strode then called attention to the eminent counsel which had been employed to prosecute his client, insinuating that it was apparent thereby that he was being persecuted so that the Shedy heirs would profit by it. He called attention to Mr. Lambertson's wide reputation as a public prosecutor, having been engaged in that line for mony years in the United States. He told [of?] his services in liberating the city council from imorisonment in the Grandpa [Burris?] case, and told of his apaointment as prosecutor for the interstate commerce commission. He declared him to be eminent for his qualifications in that line; eulogized Messra. Hall and Snell and said that when he thought of the counsel engaged in the prosecution he trembled for his client He warned the jury not to be misled by the eloquence and sophistry of counsel to condemn his client.

Mr. Strode then called for the ring which had been introduced in evidence as one which Monday in his confession had said that Mrs. Sheedy had given him. Its production was the beginning of a dramatic scene.

"Mr. Hall," said he, "called your attention to the fact that Monday McFarland's confession was corroborated by a ring found in a pawn shop. Now I ask you what evidence is there that Mrs. Sheedy ever owned such a ring? There was no evidence that went to show that against Mrs. Sheedy. You cannot consider that confession against her. Yes, they stand here by the hour telling you of things that are in McFarland's confession. He says she placed that ring on his finger and the ring was identified as found at a pawn shop. What mark is there upon it? Nobody should say it was Mary Sheedy's ring or ever had been, and the pawnbroker tells you that the ring had no mark upon it except the fineness of the gold of which it was made. That he put a ticket upon it. McGarland says in his confession this is the one Mary Sheedy gave him, yet there is not a scintilla of evidence that Mary Sheedy ever owned such a ring. I do not believe she ever owned such a ring. I do not believe [svch?] a ring ever had any existence except in the imagination of Monday McFarland. I don't believe he ever got it of mary Sheedy.

"Put that ring on your finger," said Mr. Strode, advancing with extended hand toward the prisoner.

In a moment Mr. Lambertson was upon his feet protesting:

"Your honor, we object to that. That would be getting evidence from Monday McFarland unfairly. Why didn't they put him on the stand if they wanted his evidence? We would have been glad to have them do so. If they persist in this unfair attempt to secure evidence from him we shall contend for the right to cross-examine him."

"It occurred to me when I tried to place it on my finger that it is not Monday McFarland's ring. It would scarcely go on any finger. Look at that man, look at his size, and tell me if he has a finger that ring would go on? Yet they try to affect Mrs. Sheedy by saying Monday McFarland had a ring that she had placed upon his finger."

He got warmer as he talked and seemed to have just made an important discovery.

"You have been playing some kind of jugglary on me, some trickery with [this?] ring. Then there is this hair. Mr. Hall tells in his argument, why don't you prove this is not Mary Sheedy's hair. Doubtless it may be a part of her hair.

McFarland was combing her hair and dressing her hair. She did not deny that. There is no evidence but what that had been done. And if that were true, how easy it was for him to have obtained some of her hair in combing it and dressing it. And he could have saved some of the combings if he wanted to. Whether he did or not, i don't know. This lock of her hair looks to me, darker than any hair I have ever seen on Mary Sheedy's head. I simply ask you to look at it. These detectives have been working up this testimony," and he laid the darker [tress?] against Mrs. Sheedy's golden bangs while she sat resignedly with eyes upon the floor.

"We object to that, your honor. That would be putting her upon the stand, and when that is done we want the opportunity to cross exxamine her."

"You can't sneak testimony in that way which you were afraid to introduce by the proper method, and when you charge that we have manufactured testimony I denounce you as an infamous liar."

"Go on, Mr. Lambertson, you can't scare me," calmly replied Mr. Strode.

"Gentlemen, that will do," sternly admonished the court. "There is no occasion for any such language as this. Mr. Lambertson, I am surprised that you use such language in court. There is nothing courageous in calling a man a liar in court, and I want to say that you have committed an ungentlemanly and unprofessional act."

The crowd burst into applause at the severity of the court's admonition, attested by the clapping of hands and murmurs of approval. This renewed the displeasure of the court, and Judge Field seriously and somewhat feelingly threatened to clear the court room if there was such another demonstration.

"This is too serious a trial to permit of any such expressions. Nothing that is said here is intended for the benefit of the audience, or for its approval or disapproval, and if this audience cannot remain quiet it must be cleared from the room."

Mr. Strode re-echoed the sentiments of the court.

ALL RESTS WITH THE JURY

CLOSE OF ARGUMENT IN THE SHEEDY CASE.

Mr. Strode Brings His Brilliant, Earnest Plea for the Life of His Client to a Thrilling Close.

And Mr. Lambertson Reviews the History of the Crime With Telling Eloquence and Vigor-Bracing Up the Jury.

A Passionate Outburst of Counsel.

Never in the history of the city has public interest in any event been so thoroughly demonstrated as was yesterday the interest in the Sheedy case. People began to arrive at the court house before 8 o'clock, hoping thereby to secure desirable seats ere court opened at 9. As the hour of opening approached long lines of people were to be seen pouring from every direction en route to the court house. Every neighboring hitching post was brought into service for the tethering of horses and vehicles. At 9 o'clock it was almost impossible to crowd one's way through the court room. No regard was paid to the railing enclosing the large space usually allotted to the court and the bar. Every foot of standing room even in that large court chamber was filled, and more than filled. The ladies, who largely predominated, had invaded the very steps of the throne of justice, and Judge Field's platform was flanked on either side by banks of feminine faces and gay and fluttering headgear. If there was a single inch of vacant space in all that crowded room outside of the few square feet in front of the jury box, it was impossible to locate it by a view form the judicial dais. Even the defendants were brought into uncomfortable proximity with the eager throngs, whose chairs were crowded directly up against them. No such assemblage of beauty, fashion, walth, intelgence, mixed with their various reverses, has ever been witnessed in a Lincoln court of justice, or anything nearly approaching it, while hundreds were turned away, not because the doors were closed, but because it was utterly impossible to push one's way in. There was a musical but deafening hum of conversation as the jostling, pushing audience pushed into more or less uncomfortable positions, content even with the poorest accommodations, gald even that they were permitted to stand up to see and hear the proceedings. Such an audience was well calculated to bring out every latent power of logic and eloquence from the brains and lips of the gifted counsel, and most truly did it exert its full capabilities in that line. There were old ladies and old gentlemen there, whose wrinkled: visages and white locks had never adorned so impressive a scene. There were young men and youths who were ardent in their views on the case. young and fasionable misses and young girls stood along in rows and viewed with critical eyes the raiment of each other. Hundreds of married ladies were there looking out for the best seats, [fluttering?] their fans and holding themselves in readiness to be touched to tears. Their readiness in that direction was brought to frequent proof.

It was a little remarkable that with such a multitude crowded and pressed into so slight a space the order throughout the day was, with one exception, beyond criticism or reproof. Only once was the court called upon to indulge an admonition. That [?] audience was most thoroughly impressed with the gravity and solemnity of the situation, and the stillness of death reigned through most of the day, broken only by the impassioned pleadings of the counsel to the jury. The crowd in the afternoon to hear the closing argument of Mr. Lambertson was simply beyond description. So dense was it that one middle-aged lady standing up in the aisle fainted late in the afternoon and it was actually impossible to take her out. So intent was the crowd on hearing Judge Field's instructions to the jury, then being delivered, that few noted the incident and those in the immediate vicinity, with the assistance of [Bailiff?] Taylor, applied restoratives and in a few minutes had her so that she could sit up and renew her interest in the proceedings.

When Mrs. Sheedy came into court in the morning her sisters fairly carried her along the narrow passage made for her through the crowd. She was evidently very ill and weak. Her attorneys had consulted as to the advisability of bringing in a couch for her, but the stout-hearted, resolute little woman had insisted that she would be equal to the ordeal. As she came in it looked as if her attendant's support was all that kept her from reeling and falling to the floor. During the pathetic argument of Mr. Strode she alternated between expression of tearful grief and sorrow and those of absolute exhaustion.